Deal flop: AOC says she will break up ‘Green New Deal’

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is trying a new strategy to get her mammoth Green New Deal pushed through Congress.

“One of the things I think is really exciting,” said the freshman Democrat, is that “the legislation that we are planning on introducing is not one broad-sweeping piece of legislation.”

Of course, the GND has already been introduced as a “broad-sweeping piece of legislation” and was roundly mocked and scoffed at from both sides of the political aisle. But, Ocasio-Cortez is hoping if the massive proposal is divvied out in pieces, it might be more palatable to both her fellow Congress members and their voters.

“We are breaking it up into parts,” Ocasio-Cortez proclaimed on Wednesday, according to the Washington Examiner.

“We are really excited about it,” she added. “That’s going to be dropping this month, and it’s going to be really a focus on buildings, which is one of the three major industries we have to focus on when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.”

The first pieces of the broken-up resolution are also expected to focus on major move toward electric vehicles, according to the Washinton Examiner.

The Green New Deal was trotted out in February and sent immediate red flags to those who support limited government. The plan as it was presented, would essentially transform the U.S. economy and hand over the decision making from everyday Americans to a central government — decisions from what to eat to how cool your thermostat is set.

A massive push to edit the proposal took place after it’s initial release as the goliath legislation was too much to stomach for most Americans.

But, before anyone thinks that the GND could never happen, take a look at what some Democrat presidential frontrunners are saying:

According to Sleepy Joe, the $93 TRILLION Green New Deal doesn’t go too far at all.

As BPR reported in February, the Camp Fire that tore through parts of California is believed to have started by neglected powerlines, not climate change.

California’s largest utility for years neglected to repair the aging power line thought to have sparked the state’s deadliest wildfire ever in 2018, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Pacific, Gas & Electric (PG&E) proposed repairs to the Caribou-Palermo line that runs near the town of Paradise in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, according to filings with state regulators reviewed by WSJ. In the last filing, the company projected the repairs to begin in June 2018. The work never started.

Should Ocasio-Cortez’s latest attempt to push the GND through Congress be successful, it would bolster her new-found political career to enormous heights, especially if a Democrat were elected as President in 2020.

A recent study by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) concluded that if the GND were implemented it would cost households more than $70,000 per year. The costs would be needed to cover increased electricity (coal!?), upgrading vehicles and buildings, and shipping, among other major adjustments.

The study specifically looked at five model states: Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. In each of the states, it was found that year one would result in staggering new costs, to be followed by ongoing, annual bank-account draining sums into perpetuity for every household. Alaska, given its remoteness and dependence on fossil fuels, would in fact see individual household costs of more than $100,000 in year one.

Breaking down the GND might break down the costs, at first, and could play a role in the new strategy.

It will be up to the Republican-led Senate to block it again as they did in March when Mitch McConnell brought the resolution up for a vote. As the Examiner noted, most Democrats voted “present.”